Automatic shuttle-stop for looms



T. F. LOFTUS AND F. E. BRAZEAL,

AUTOMATIC SHUTTLE STOP FOR LOOMS.

APPLlCATlON FILED OCT. 29. 1919.

I 1,357,066. Patented 0013. 26, 1920.

a SHEETS-SHEET 1.

F gl

WITNESSES nvm/rons -41? W w H J if W w AUDRNEYS T. F. LOFTUS AND F. E. BRAZEAL. AUTOMATIC SHUTTLE STOP FOR LOOMS.

APPLICATION FILED OCT. 29. 1919.

1,357,066, Patented Oct. 26, 1920.

, a SHEETS-SHEET 2.

WITNESSES 26-- .--26 NV NTORS ff j f m w at W afronuns T. F. LOFTUS AND F. E. BRAZEAL.

AUTOMATIC SHUTTLE STOP FOR LOOMS.

APPLICATION FILED OCT. 29. 1919..

1,357,066. Patented Oct. 2 ,1920.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

WITNESSES INVENTORS J. MJTMM 5 Wu OIINEYS ATT UNITED STATES PATEN QF THoMAs r. LOFTUS, or wns'r PiIILAnELPHIA, ANDJERANKE. nnAzEAn, 0F LANs noWnnrENNsYLvANIii.

AUTOMATIC SHUTTLE- STOP FOR LOOMS."

To all whom it may concern.

Be it known that we, THOMAS F. Lorr s and FRANK E. BRAZEAL, citizens of the United States, and residents, respectively, of WVest Philadelphia, in the county of Philadelphia and State of Pennsylvania, and Lansdowne, in the county of Delaware and State. of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Automatic Shuttle-Stop for Looms, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to factory looms and has particular reference to safetyv appliances for such machines. c

The primary object is to prevent what is known as the shuttle smash or the breaking of the warp ends.

Another object of the invention-is to prevent damage to the mechanism and injury to the weaver in the event that twoshuttles are caused to collide as a result of the weaver making the mistake in putting shuttles in the shuttle race at both sides of} the loom.

Another object of the. invention, in the carrying out of the primary object, is to cause the loom to stop whenever two shuttles arein position to be p1ckeds1multaneously from opposite sides. 4.

Another ob 'ect of theinvention is to cause the loomto stop automatically in the event that one shuttle should stop half way in a shuttle box whentheybox is onthe descent, and another shuttle is aboutto be picked from the opposite side, thereby pre venting the breakage ofpicker sticks, as

well as other damageto the machine.

The colliding of shuttles ininills is an every day occurrence, and among the; causes of such conditions are the following: The weaver putting shuttles in the wrong shuttle box, broken picker straps, picker sticks,

sweep sticks, heel spring, or box vibrators, or any part of the box motion getting out of order such as vibrators'binding in "socket or comb, or gettingoutof time,

Our improvement, therefore, in short is,

Specification of Letters Patent. Patented Oct, 26, 1920; Application filed Oc'cober 29, 1919. Serial No.-334,200. I I

right, but if he;:has aneaa correct an of A thefaultsfit will be impossible for him to start the loom because of our safety appliance... a s I W1th the foregoing and other objects in view the lnvention consistsin the arrangementsan d combination of partshereinafter' described and claimed, and while the invention is not restricted to the exact details of construction disclosed or suggested herein,

stillfor the purpose of illustrating a practical vembodiment thereof reference is had to the accompanying-drawings, in which I like reference charaeters designate thesame parts, in the several views, and in wh1ch- Figure 1'is' a front elevation of a loomequipped Withi our p ment and in ppe position. i r

Fig, 2 is aleft sideelevation vofs the same. s .r

Fig. 3 is.' a vertical sectional detail on the line 33 of Fig. 4 showing the parts in working position; L y

Fig.4 is a front elevation of the main parts of our improvement but with the knock-off lever in section on the line 4'4 OfFlg.3. it v Fig; 5 is a view correspondingsubstantiallyto Fig. 3, but indicating the automatic.

stopping position of the improvement.

j Fig. 6 isa rear 1 elevation of the bracket and latch portions of our improvement, the latch being in stopping position;

g Referring now more specifically to the mechanism we show diagrammatically a conventional loom comprisingabreastbeam .10,'a lay beam 11 adapted to oscillate toward'and from thebreastbeam and around the-axis .ofa shaft 12. 13'indicates a rock shaft journa'led inibearings let on the breastbeam and to either ,endof .whichisf secured a starting and stopping'lever 15'or 15 for the usualcontrol of the operation of'the loom. Asindicated best in Fig. 2 the conr trol is had througha clutch 16 fixed from endwise movement upon a shaft'17 and toward'and from which a drivingpulley 18 is adapted tobe moved by, means of a lever .19 pivoted at 20. A linker bar 21 connects thelower end of the. lever--15 to the upper end of the lever 19 whereby to start v the loom either hand lever Will be drawn.

forward "as indicated by the. arrow a and to stop the 100m either lever will be; operated thus far described in detail are or may be substantially the same as in ordinary use, and therefore this specification will not presume to describe at unnecessary length either such parts or the normal ordinary working of the loom, all of which are well understood by those skilled in the weavers art. essentially to the attachment constituting our safety improvement.

22 indicatesa bracket fixed to the front face of the laybeam ll. This bracket projects downward below the beam and is provided at its lower end with a vertical slot At the rear of the bra'cke't is a pendirlous latch suspended from a horizontal pivot 25 journaled in the bracket and in a forward extension'22" of the bracket. The lower end of the latch is adapted to oscillate between stop lugs 26 on the rear face of thebracket so as to extend across and close the slot 23=or to lie at one side thereof as indicated in full and dotted lines respectively in-Fig. (3. The normal tendency of the latch is to close the slot which may be effected eitherfby gravity or preferably by someauxiliary meanssuch 81 in position to be picked by the picker sticks 32 and 83, we provide a pairof coaxial rock shafts 3st and 8 5yournaled n the front of the lay beam 11 in bearings 36.

Springs 37 or their equivalent act upon the rock shafts 34 and 35 and tend to rotate them in a clockwise direction in F 3 and 5. To each. of these rock shafts are secured two levers 3S and 39. The two levers 39 are located in close proximity to each other and adjacent to the abutting ends of the rock shafts and are so designed as to cooperate in succession with a finger 40 fixed to the pivot 25 above described. hen either shuttle 31 is in its box in position to be'pi'cked the binder 29 or 30 pertaining to the hoX-iin which the shuttle is located will be pressed forward and in so doing it will swing the lever 38 forward thereby. turning the rock shaft against the tension of the'spring37 actingthereon. This movement of the rock shaft in a counter clockwise direction as indicated in Fig. 3 causes the lever 39 fixed to the same rock shaft to swing downward and rearward away from the finger 40, the finger being normally held however in the normal operation of the machine with the shuttles working properly in alternation elevated by the other lever 39 so that under these conditions the latch 24; is always held at one side of the slot 23. I The instant the shuttleleaves the shuttle box and binder the spring 37 will act to move thelev'er '38 rear- Ne, therefore, shall confine ourselves,

bridge the slot when the shuttle box is empty.

If, however, any of the dangerous conditions above enumerated should 0bta1n such as the sticking of a shuttle in an intermediate position or the presence of two shuttles in the shuttle boxes at the same time both levers'38 .will be pushedforward against the force of the springs 37 and both levers 39 will be dropped downward and rearward. Consequently the latch 24. will be free to swing downward to the full line position of Fig. .6.

I Secured to theroch shaft 13 is what we term a knock-off lever 1:1 the rear end of which is provided with a cam face ll and which in the normal operation of the 'looniiis received in or through the slot at each oscillation of the lay. hen the starting shaft 13 is rotated by a forward pu-llon eitherof the levers 15 or 15 to'start the loom the knock-off lever 4:1 swings upward into the slot 23 or into a position to. be received in the slot when the lay makes its next forward movement. It is essential, therefore, that the latch 2 lbe located at one side of the slo't'23 inorder to start the machine. If the conditions are such thatthe latch 24 is in position to close the slot it follows that if the machine is at rest it can not be started and furthermore if in operation the latch 24. will strike against the'cam face 11 on he ncXt forward oscillation of the lay and will cause automatically the movement of the starting levers in the direction of the arrow Z) and the throwing out of the clutch.

The mechanism of a relatively simple mechanical nature being easily applied to any standard 100m of the nature indicated herein and under normal operating conditions of the loom-no obstruction nor inconvenience is occasioned by the attachment. Vith all the parts in proper running condition and position the machine is started, manipulated or stopped in the usual manner. If, however, any of the dangerous conditions should result tending to cause damage to the machine or injury to the operator the loom will be automatically and immediately stopped before such damage or injury can result. No attention is required on the part of the weaver inthe manipulation or control of the attachment. He simply performs'his usua'l operations in the'manipula tion or control of the 100111 and by the reestablishment by the weaver of the proper running conditions after a fault has occurred, the safety attachment will automatically be restored to the position that will provide for the proper normal operation of the loom.

e claim:

1. The combination with a starting device for a loom, of a knockoff lever connected to the starting device, and means comprising a pendulouslatch cooperating automatically and directly with the knock-off lever to move the starting device to stopping position in the event of two shuttles occupying positions to be picked at the same time.

2. T he combination with'a loom lay having shuttle binders, of a starting and stopping device for the loom, a knock-oil lever carried by the last mentioned device and having a CZLIl1-f2LC6Cl end projecting into cooperation with the lay, a pendulous latch, means acting upon the latch tending to hold it constantly in inactive position while the shuttle binders are operating properly in succession, and spring'means to cause the latch to swing into operativeposition to cooperate with said cam-faced lever end in the event that the binders are not in proper working position and so cause the automatic stopping of the loom. j

3. The combination with aloom lay, a pair oi rock-shafts journaled thereon, means to oscillatethe rock shafts in succession durin the normal operation of the loom, alatch arried by the lay and depend ng from a horizontal pivot, means including a finger connected to said pivot and acting upon the latch to normally hold it inoperative during the normal operation of the loom, the latch being movable to a different position automatically in the event of a dangerous condition of the loom, and a knock-oft stopping member with which the latch cooperates in the latter position to automatically stop the loom.

4. The combination with a loom lay and shuttle binders carried thereby, of a pair of coaxial rock shafts journaled upon the lay, a pair of arms connected to the remote ends of the rock shafts and cooperating normally shafts, and, a finger fixed tosaid pivot and n'ormallyheld lifted by one or theother of said adjacent levers. d V

5. The combination with a loom lay, a

safety appliance comprising a bracket fixed,

to the lay and projecting downward therefrom, said bracket having at its lower end a vertical slot and having a pair of stop lugs extending rearward on opposite sides of the slot, the bracket having also a forward bearing extension, a pivot journaled in the bracket and its extension, a pendulous latch fixed to the rear end of the pivot and movable across the slot between said stop lugs, a finger connected to the pivot, means acting upon the pivot tending to throw the latch in position to close the slot, a pair of rockshafts journaled on the lay, a pair of arms connected to the adjacent ends of the respective rock shafts and cooperating with said finger tending under normal operative conditions to hold the latch at one side of the slot, and means to actuate the rock shafts, substantially asset forth.

THOMAS F. LOFTUS FRANK E. BRAZEAL. 

